Making friends through his music

Kelvin Holly, a Shoals session player and songwriter, likes to joke that he got his start like any other musician his age — watching The Beatles for the first time in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show.

“People who became musicians around that time always say that,” he said with a laugh. “You know, that’s a little ironic though, because anytime I saw interviews with The Beatles or the Rolling Stones — anyone like that — they would always cite Little Richard as one of their biggest influences.”

The irony is that Holly eventually went on to perform alongside the idol of his biggest idols.

Holly stepped in as a guitarist for Little Richard’s Band in 1995 — a gig he would hold for about 20 years — after he was recommended to the rock-and-roll legend by fellow musicians who’d developed working relationships with Little Richard after he recorded at FAME in the 1970s.

“Travis Wammack, Wayne Cheney, Guy Higginbotham, Chalmers Davis — a lot of those guys are gone now — but that’s how I got the job. Richard wanted another guitar player, so they threw my name out there, and he called me up the next day. Out of the blue,” Holly said. “It was a trip, you know. He said he would get me a plane ticket if I would fly out to Los Angeles to meet him and everything. I flew out and played my first show with him that night. No rehearsal, nothing.”

Performing live with Little Richard took Holly around the globe and allowed him to cross off “bucket-list venues” like the Vienna State Opera House in Austria and Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“I have a lot of stories, but you know, the best thing about being a part of all that was that Richard and I actually became good friends,” he said. “It wasn’t just professional. We talked to each other on the phone. I actually talked to him about a month before he passed.”

Holly had performed with Little Richard up until his final performances before the star’s death in 2020. While that time on the road was a defining moment in his career, Holly had been playing long before he ever found the spotlight.

“Before The Beatles, there weren’t really any bands that existed. It was always solo artists, but these guys looked cool. There were girls screaming at them and they were writing their own songs,” he said. “When you’re 10, 11 or 12 years old, you’re like, ‘Wow! I want to do that.’ And we did.”

Recalling his involvement with various “garage bands,” Holly said he earned his chops as a teenager.

“You’d get together with like-minded people. That’s the way it’s been my whole life,” he said. “My dad was military, so we moved around a lot. It was always through music that you’d meet friends.”

Originally from New Jersey, Holly graduated from high school in Montgomery in 1972. Since that time, he’s worked as a guitarist for bands and artists like the Amazing Rhythm Aces, most known for its 1975 hit “Third Rate Romance,” and Pegi Young and The Survivors.

It was his induction into the local band The Decoys that brought Holly to the Shoals in 1991.

“We used to play a club in Muscle Shoals called Union Station, and we had developed a following,” he said. “We got popular in the area, and I decided to move here. I met Tonya, and we got married. You know how life is.”

Holly played with The Decoys for years alongside other local legends like David Hood and Roger Hawkins, who were both Swampers, and Will McFarlane. That connection led to session work for Holly at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and FAME, where he continues to contribute for tracks as a musician and songwriter.

Throughout his career, Holly has collaborated with artists like Bobby Bland, Gregg Allman and Klaus Voorman.

“As a session artist, sometimes you don’t even know who you’re going to be working with until you get there,” Holly said. “Sometimes you know the artist, sometimes you don’t. They’ll sit down and play them, and then we’ll write charts out and start throwing ideas around. Next thing you know, an hour later, you’ve got a song. It’s the best thing in the world. You know, it’s like painting a picture. It’s creating art.”

Still working and recording, Holly contributed on “The Sound of Muscle Shoals,” a song by Mike Farris that hit number one on the Euro Americana Chart in June. Holly also recently got back from Canada after recording on an album with Ottawa vocalist Sherri Harding.

A week later, he was getting ready for a performance during Handy Week in Florence. Holly’s work with The Decoys in the early 1990s also led to his longtime involvement with the annual W.C. Handy Music Festival.

“They keep asking back, so I keep playing,” he said with a laugh. “It’s great to play with some of the same people who come back every year, but they’ve got a lot of younger bands getting involved now, which is awesome.”

While the love of music continues to define his life, Holly said it was never about chasing fame or money.

“I just wanted to play,” he said. “The guitar kind of became my best friend. You know, when you’re sad, you can take your emotions out on that. I could always just sit in my room and play.”